1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to signal processing systems,
2. Description of the Related Art
Gambling activities and gaming relate back to the beginning of recorded history. Casino gambling has since developed into a multi-billion dollar worldwide industry. Typically, casino gambling consists of a casino accepting a wager from a player based on the outcome of a future event or the play of an organized game of skill or chance. Based on the result of the event or game play, the casino either keeps the wager or makes some type of payout to the player. The events include sporting events while the casino games include blackjack, poker, baccarat, craps, and roulette. The casino games are typically run by casino operators which monitor and track the progress of the game and the players involved in the game.
Blackjack is a casino game played with cards on a blackjack table. Players try to achieve a score derived from cards dealt to them that is greater than the dealer's card score. The maximum score that can be achieved is twenty-one. The rules of blackjack are known in the art.
Casino operators typically track players at table games manually with paper and pencil. Usually, a pit manager records a “buy-in”, average bet, and the playing time for each rated player on paper. A separate data entry personnel then enters this data into a computer. The marketing and operations department can decide whether to “comp” a player with a free lodging, or otherwise provide some type of benefit to a player to entice the player to gamble at the particular casino, based on the player's data. The current “comp” process is labor intensive, and it is prone to mistakes.
Protection of game integrity is also an important concern of gaming casinos. Determining whether a player or group of players are implementing orchestrated methods that decrease casino winnings is very important. For example, in “Bringing Down the House”, by Ben Mezrich, a team of MIT students beat casinos by using “team play” over a period of time. Other methods of cheating casinos and other gaming entities include dealer-player collusion, hole card play, shuffle tracking, and dealer dumping.
Automatic casino gaming monitoring systems should also be flexible. For example, a gaming monitoring system should be flexible so that it can work with different types of games, different types of gaming pieces (such as cards and chips), and in different conditions (such as different lighting environments). A gaming monitoring system that must be used with specifically designed gaming pieces or ideal lighting conditions is undesirable as it is not flexible to different types of casinos, or even different games and locations within a single casino.
What is needed is a system to manage casino gaming in terms of game tracking and game protection. For purposes of integrity, accuracy, and efficiency, it would be desirable to fulfill this need with an automatic system that requires minimal human interaction. The system should be accurate in extracting data from a game in progress, expandable to meet the needs of games having different numbers of players, and flexible in the manner the extracted data can be analyzed to provide value to casinos and other gaming entities.